Mike Geddes

Evaluating Local Strategic Partnerships - Theory and Practice of Change

Abstract Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) are a major recent innovation in English local governance. As the ‘partnership of partnerships’ in a locality, the ability of the LSP to provide an arena for community leadership and joined up service delivery is vital to the Local Government Modernisation Agenda. Drawing on material from the national evaluation of LSPs, this paper assesses their progress. A theory of change (ToC) approach was adopted in the evaluation, and the paper shows how this approach was developed and utilised. The main findings from the evaluation are then presented and discussed. In conclusion, the article draws some wider conclusions both about the strengths and weaknesses of the ToC approach and about LSPs themselves.

Localities, leadership and neoliberalization: conflicting discourses, competing practices

This article foregrounds leadership, specifically ‘local political leadership’ as a neglected but significant element of local governance and neoliberalization. Drawing on distinct literatures – on neoliberalism, leadership and governance – we offer an analysis of the key theories influencing academic, policy and political prescriptions for local political leadership. We then consider how local leadership manifests itself in divergent local contexts in the global North and South and highlight key factors which inform the adoption, adaptation or contestation of neoliberalizing tendencies ‘on the ground’. This analysis contributes to the generation of five configurations each exhibiting a different relationship of local leadership to processes of neoliberalization. We propose that this approach can aid comparative analysis of local political leadership by specifying convergent features whilst also accounting for diversity. We conclude with some suggestions for theory-building and future research.

The Modernization and Improvement of Government and Public Services: Deepening Democracy or Élite Governance? New Political Management Arrangements in Local Government

This article discusses the introduction of new political management arrangements in local government. It places the Governments current proposals for change in the context of recent research and debate about the strengths and weaknesses of local democracy, and then draws on recent research evidence, which suggests that current reforms may have a contradictory impact. The Government’s proposals are likely to bring tighter and more strategic political leadership, more effective partnership with other local organizations and, if certain steps are taken, better ‘scrutiny’ of policy and performance. However, there are serious concerns about democratic accountability and transparency, community involvement and the implications for many councillors, party groups and a healthy local party politics. It is concluded that more thorough evaluation of the impact of the changes is desirable.

Local Economic Development in the 1980s and 1990s: Retrospect and Prospects

The authors suggest that local economic development in the 1990s is facing a very different economic and political context from that of the 1970s and 1980s, and that this requires the development of very different paradigms and strategies. In particular, they argue that the transition from a Fordist to a post-Fordist economy, and the process of economic and political integration in the European Community confront local economic development agencies with a fundamentally new set of challenges in both the United Kingdom and the United States. This also means that the focus of comparative study of local economic development needs to be shifted to recognize the European context within which British localities increasingly operate.

The future of European motor industry regions: New local authority responses to industrial restructuring

The motor and components industries will undergo radical restructuring during the 1990s, and this will have major repercussions for particular firms and particular regions. This presents local and regional authorities in European motor manufacturing regions with many new challenges. If tackled constructively however, it also opens up new opportunities for regional and local authorities to play a positive role (alongside the employers, trades unions, the national governments and the European Commission) in preparing and planning for the future of the auto industry, as part of the transport needs for a changing Europe. This paper is intended to provide a framework within which change in the motor industry, and the implications for localities and regions, can be considered.

Neoliberalism and local governance: Radical developments in Latin America:

In parts of Latin America, new developments in, and struggles over, governance at the local level have emerged as part of political and policy paradigms which to a greater or lesser degree reject neoliberalism. They can be found in a range of contexts, take a variety of different forms, and have experienced differing outcomes. This article critically explores a number of these developments. It argues that, both practically and conceptually, these developments expand the parameters of what is usually thought of as local governance, and may be of increasing relevance as the impact of the post-2008 financial crisis and economic depression creates conditions in parts of the north more comparable to those in which radical alternatives emerged in Latin America.

The Modernization and Improvement of Government and Public Services: Social Exclusion—New Language, New Challenges for Local Authorities

National policy initiatives such as the establishment of the Social Exclusion Unit and the new government strategy, ‘Opportunity for All’, have provided a new stimulus to local authorities to develop more effective local strategies to promote social inclusion. The major features of current local initiatives are described, and the leadership and management challenges presented to local authorities are discussed. However, for local government to tackle social exclusion and poverty more effectively it is also necessary for the structural and regional dimensions of social exclusion to be taken more into account by central government, and for a new equilibrium between central, regional and local initiative to be achieved.

Poverty, The Local Economy and the Scope for Local Initiative

In this concluding article we draw upon some of the conclusions of the preceding contributions and also upon other recent contributions to the debate about local anti-poverty strategies in seeking to identify the scope for, and limits to, local economic development initiatives which seek to combat poverty and deprivation. We will concentrate on two issues: the role of local economic development initiatives aimed at creating employment and sustaining incomes in poor areas; and on the strengths and weaknesses of partnerships as the fashionable institutional form through which local anti-poverty initiatives are currently undertaken. In doing this, we are aware that neither economic development nor new forms of organisation can effectively combat poverty alone, and that we are excluding other important issues of social and welfare policy, concerned with the distribution of wealth and the provision of, and access to, goods and services.

Local public services and the local economy

The health of the local economy is crucial for the local community. Local authorities make a major contribution to the local economy through the infrastructure and support services they provide and promote, through direct employment and through the jobs they sustain through their expenditure and that of their employees. During the 1980s a number of local authorities sought to develop their strategic role as instigators and facilitators of economic development. However, the significance of that role and the expenditure, both capital and revenue, of local authorities has had a relatively low profile in the recent debate about economic recovery and recession in Britain. However, with the Treasury demanding an overall reduction of 2 per cent in the level of local government expenditure as part of the 1993 public expenditure round, it is even more important now for local government to develop public support for the provision of local services. Some councils are now seeking to demonstrate to their local communities (including the local business community) how important expenditure by the local authority is to the local economy and therefore to the wellbeing of the local community. They are seeking to show what effects cuts in council budgets will have on businesses in the local economy and the local economic climate in which they operate. In doing so, they are winning new allies in the debate about local service provision, changing the nature of the debate, and developing new working relationships between local government, the private sector and the voluntary sector. This article looks at the experience of one such authority, Harlow.

The old is dying but the new is struggling to be born: hegemonic contestation in Bolivia

In Bolivia, 2005 saw the election of the MAS (Movement towards Socialism) government headed by Evo Morales, inaugurating a radical program contesting neoliberalism and the long history of colonialism and neocolonialism in the country. Critics however have questioned the extent to which the Morales government has broken from neoliberalism, and how far its radical rhetoric is reflected in substantive change. What makes Bolivia particularly interesting is that influential figures in and around government turn to Gramsci in presenting and debating economic and political strategy. Drawing on both English and Spanish language literatures, this article contributes to the current critical revival of interest in Gramscian analysis. It asks not only how Gramscian concepts help us to understand the contemporary process of change in Bolivia, but also what light Bolivia sheds on the continuing relevance of key Gramscian concepts of hegemony and counter-hegemony, the integral state and passive revolution. Whereas many Gramscian studies have been concerned with the integrative aspects of neoliberal hegemony, this article foregrounds issues about building counter- or post-neoliberal hegemony.